Ghost of Yotei has huge map potential, but it may not need it

Key recommendations

• Ghost of Yotei features Atsu in 1603 on a revenge path to Ezo, 300 years after Ghost of Tsushima.
• The potential size of Ezo's massive open world may be a challenge if Sucker Punch hopes to avoid the criticism of Ghost of Tsushima.
• Sucker Punch is committed to avoiding Ghost of Tsushima's repetitiveness in Ghost of Yotei's map design.

Fans would have expected a direct sequel Ghost of Tsushima this would continue Jin Sakai's story, but instead they'll get a whole new adventure. Yotei's ghost sees Atsu, its protagonist, on a path of revenge towards Ezo in 1603, 300 years after the events of Ghost of Tsushima. Not much is currently known about the full extent of the Yotei's ghostbut it is possible to speculate as to the size of his map with the little information that has already been given.

Yotei's ghost takes players to the land of Ezo, known today as the island of Hokkaido, so its open world has the potential to be overwhelmingly massive. However, after some criticism gathered by Ghost of Tsushimathe sequel may want to keep things under control – unless, of course, it can feature an even bigger open world than its predecessor, but still make it manageable.

Ghost of Yotei has a tough choice to make in terms of its world size

Ghost of Yotei could allow players to explore Ezo in its entirety

With Yotei's ghost taking players to Ezo, this could lead to them being introduced to an open world that is over 100 times larger than the island of Tsushima, the setting for Ghost of Tsushima. Specifically, while the island of Tsushima is about 269 square miles, Ezo (Hokkaido) is about 32,222 square miles. Having said that, Ghost of TsushimaThe actual size of his map is significantly reduced, resulting in about 11 square miles.

If Yotei's ghostEzo's maintains its proportions compared to Ghost of TsushimaTsushima's island, which will put it in the neighborhood of 1,300 square miles – about 14 times the size of others such as Assassin's Creed OdysseyGreece, covering nearly 91 square miles, both on land and sea. Needless to say, Ezo's enormous size gives Sucker Punch an endless sea of ​​possibilities, giving them more than enough room to work with, but it might not be the best route for him to take.

Ghost of Yotei may want to keep its map size under control after the criticism of Ghost of Tsushima

While “bigger is better” might once have been a core philosophy of open-world design, it's been scorned for some time due to its effortless ability to manifest empty game worlds bloated with repetitive activities. Ghost of Tsushima couldn't entirely avoid these criticisms, though many elements of its open world offer a refreshing take on the tired formula. Instead of being bloated with way too many open activities, though, Ghost of Tsushima it's simply repetitive, featuring essentially the same activities and collectibles in each of its story acts and the three major regions of its iteration of Tsushima Island.

Until the players arrive Ghost of Tsushimaits third act (or even second), you might find yourself preferring to avoid exploring the open world as much as possible and simply prioritize the game's main story. While there is nothing technically wrong with this, the approach also wastes precious time and resources that are Ghost of Tsushima spilled into its open world. As such, Yotei's ghost it might be remiss to feature an even bigger map, especially if most of it is nothing more than flat, overgrown terrain, as its announcement trailer seems to depict.

With
Yotei's ghost
taking players to Ezo, this could lead to them being introduced to an open world that is over 100 times larger than the island of Tsushima, the setting for
Ghost of Tsushima
.

Instead of allowing players to explore Ezo in its entirety, Yotei's ghost it could contain them in the lands surrounding Mount Yotei, which would make sense given the game's title. However, if Yotei's ghost chooses to go the route of opening up all of Ezo to players, it might be nice to have the map split into multiple regions that open up as the story progresses. Additionally, each region should feature new activities and collectibles that were previously unobtainable to prevent monotony from setting in again.

Looks like Sucker Punch explained the shortcomings Ghost of Tsushimahis open world, as this confirmed Yotei's ghostHis map will not be as repetitive as his predecessor's. Unfortunately, it seems like this might be an insurmountably tall order when you consider the size of Ezo compared to Tsushima Island. However, these are all conjectures, as Yotei's ghostIts open world is not yet fully revealed.